


Rick Place, Wong Time

by flibbertygigget



Series: Rick and Wong [2]
Category: Rick and Morty
Genre: Episode: s03e10 The Rickchurian Mortydate, Gen, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Suicidal Thoughts, Therapy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 11:49:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12253824
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flibbertygigget/pseuds/flibbertygigget
Summary: "Everything's fucked up and I can't fuck it up even more, not this time."Dr. Wong makes a breakthrough; Rick makes a decision.





	Rick Place, Wong Time

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the same universe as Ricks and Wongs.

When Rick Sanchez comes in for his biweekly appointment, Dr. Wong notices a change in him immediately. Usually, Rick would already be drunk. Usually, he would fight her tooth and nail before giving any hint of what was going on in his life. Usually, he would be fifteen minutes to an hour late, not almost a half hour early. But this time, Rick sits down quietly, fiddling with the cap of his flask but not opening it. Instead of annoyed or angry he seems almost nervous.

"So, Rick, how have you been?" Dr. Wong asks. Rick makes a half-laughing sound deep in his throat.

"Oh, I've had an eventful two weeks," he says. "Too eventful, actually. If it wasn't for what happened last time, I'd go to an alien spa as a reward for putting up with this shit." Dr. Wong nods, waiting for him to continue. "Jesus fuck, I need a drink."

"I've told you multiple times that you can't drink in here, but that's never stopped you before."

"Nah, i-it's not that. I just - I'm tired. Everything's fucked up and I can't fuck it up even more, not this time."

"You said that these last two weeks have been eventful?" Rick actually does laugh then.

"You don't know half of it. I mean, Beth remembered that she got more from me than her shitty vocabulary, became self-aware, and now I can't even try to get Morty a selfie with the president without having people jumping on me like I'm the bad guy." Dr. Wong knows for a fact that Rick isn't giving her the full story. That's the way it always is with him - deflection and obfuscation wrapped together in a shield so tight it would take her years to sneak a glimpse through it. Luckily, she doesn't need to see though him. She just needs to help him see through himself.

"That sounds frustrating."

"You sound like a fucking robot."

"Then how would you say you feel about it?"

"I already told you, I'm fucking tired!" he bursts out. His fingers dig into the arm of the chair like he wants to burrow into the ground. Then, almost instantly, he deflates. "I'm just... I'm so tired."

"What are you tired of?"

"Everything. My family, you, me, everything." He pauses. "They left me." Dr. Wong's worry, which had been clinical before, seems to become its own being.

"What happened?"

"What happened? They fucking left me! Beth fell back in love with her idiot, and Morty and Summer went right along with them. They ran off to go sing Kumbiya or whatever the fuck normal families do and they LEFT ME!" Rick is panting by the end of it, something dangerously close to tears in his eyes. "And you know what? They were right to do it. There's no fucking way that this new bullshit will work, not with me still in the picture. I don't even know why I'm trying."

"You seem to have found yourself in a rather emotionally charged situation-"

"No shit. I should have left the moment they did."

"-yet I still don't believe that it would be beneficial for you to leave your family behind at this point." Dr. Wong pauses, searching for the rifht way to word what she wants to say. "Rick, what do you want right now?" Rick glares at her silently, hand spasming around his flask. "I can't help you if I don't know what you want."

"I thought you were supposed to be the smart one," Rick says.

"Please, we both know that, compared to you, I'm a moron. I do, however, have one thing you don't-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know, you're well-adjusted, whoop-dee-doo." But the shot seems to go wide, since Rick isn't glaring or spitting his verbal acid. He just looks lost, staring at the worn carpet, playing with a loose string on his lab coat. "I don't know what the fuck I want. I just... I want everything to go back to normal, like-like none of this shit ever happened."

"I take it that isn't an option," Dr. Wong says.

"Believe me, if time travel was possible, I would've invented it already. I would've made it so that I never came back, or maybe so that I never left in the first place. Whatever. Point is, there's no way out of this. I'm completely fucked."

"It seems your only option is to go forward."

"How the hell am I supposed to do that?" Rick half brings the flask to his lips before snarling and tossing it to the ground. "Look, I'm not going to mince words: I'm an asshole. I fuck up everything and everyone, and the only people who can stand me take it as an excuse to walk all over me. I've been an asshole for a long time, and I have no chance of ever changing that, no matter what you think you can pull."

"Rick, there's a common saying in my profession. 'The first step to fixing a problem is admitting that you have one.' You've acknowledged that you're an asshole, and quite frankly I agree. Now what are you going to do about it?" Rick mutters something under his breath. "What was that?"

"I _said_ that I don't want to be an asshole anymore," Rick says. It sounds like he wants to snap at her, but he can't seem to find the energy. "I'm so fucking sick of this, just sick of all of it. I'd put an end to it, but they'd be even more fucked if I disappeared on them again. But this - I can't do it. I'm too-"

"Mr. Sanchez, you didn't let such petty concerns as coherent storytelling and logic get in the way of turning yourself into a pickle. Why should anything stop you now?"

"That was different; that was _science_. I prove scientific laws wrong for breakfast, but this is - this is emotions and character development and that is _not_ my area at all."

"But it is mine." Dr. Wong crosses her legs, preparing for battle. "You wish to change, and I believe that you're fully capable of it, but you're going to talk yourself out of it before you even start. I'm not saying that it will be easy, but I do think it will be worth it for you and for your family."

"But I'm-"

"Your shortcomings, however great they may be, are hardly an issue here. You aren't doing this alone. You have me, and you have your family."

"So, what, you give me a little pep talk and everything's peachy?"

"No," Dr. Wong admits. "Change is hard work. But you don't want to be an asshole anymore. From what you told me of these last two weeks, you've hit a long-overdue rock bottom. What do you have to lose by trying?" Rick stares at her for a few moments, and then he sighs, a small snort escaping him.

"Not fucking much," he says. "Alright, let's do this thing."


End file.
